Pages

Monday, December 31, 2012

So, I mentioned two posts ago that I would update you on our mountain trip (which happened like a month ago). I took very few pictures, so many words will have to do. :)

I don't even remember the day but sometime in November we went up to Dickie Bros. to get some apples. And when I say "some" apples I mean multiple bushels. :) We got some Fuji's (positively the best apple ever), Granny Smith's (Mom's fave), and some Stayman, Red Delicious, Pink Lady (Hannah's fave) and something else for applesauce.

We then stopped to take our annual family pictures by this beautiful stone fence not far away. We had no idea whose fence we were using in our pictures, but, hey, it was pretty and everyone wanted to get the pictures done. Long story short we took all our annual photos except for the family one when this guy rolls up on an ATV. Ends up, after Daddy talks to him and explains our presence, that he was the owner of that beautiful stone fence we were using. :) His name was Mr. Coffey and he invited us to come see his "man cave" after our picture (by his fence) was taken. (I was very relieved he was fine with us using his fence in our pictures...I'm just not as spontaneous as, say, Daddy - and the rest of my family. :)

We took a few family pictures (tripods are such a wonderful thing!) and then went to Mr. Coffey's "man cave". Inside the "man cave" were black bear furs, deer heads, and an assortment of stuffed animals (fox, mink, beaver, raccoon, etc.). He also had guns displayed all over the walls, in gun racks everywhere and a few massive bee hives. In the back room he had all his ammo (tons of boxes) and fishing stuff. We all loved listening to his hunting stories. He even invited any or all of us to go bear hunting with him this winter. Don't know if that'll happen, just kind of neat that he invited us. :) After showing us his man cave he showed us all his hunting dogs and then even took us inside his house!! His house was gorgeous!! It's one of those adorable, old farmhouses that has been there for over 100 years. There were cute nooks and crannies everywhere, a tiny staircase...it was just an amazing house. Would love to live in a house like his one day...I felt like I was in a different time zone walking around in there. :)

Oh - one amazing thing about his house...he loves Civil War History (as do I) and he had a complete room dedicated to the CW. He had slave tags, handcuffs, a chain and ball (to keep slaves from running away), as well as lots of other artifacts and paraphernalia. Most of the stuff he had was real and used during the Civil War era (so amazing and creepy at the same time!!!).

After his house tour, we thanked him for his kindness, gave him our contact info, thanked him again, and then left for Crabtree Falls.

Dickie Bros. Orchard (and Mr. Coffey's house) is only a few miles away from Crabtree Falls. Crabtree Falls is a massive series of beautiful waterfalls (it's a 2 mile hike up to the top) right off the road. The trail is very easy to follow (it has guardrails and everything) and it's not very strenuous, so it's the perfect hiking spot for a large family. Too bad we spent so long talking with Mr. Coffey that it was practically dark when we arrived. :)

It was around 4 P.M. and we still hadn't eaten lunch so we ate our little picnic lunch at the bottom of the Falls. So we all huddled together (it was freezing...) in massive coats and blankets to eat our cold pasta salad and veggies. Ahh....good memories. :)

Crabtree is normally crawling with tourists and people like us, but that day there was virtually no one there. I think there were 2 cars. One left while we were eating "lunch" (they stared at us the whole way out...I can't imagine how funny we must've looked!) and we came across the others when hiking the trail.

I was freezing to death during (and after!) lunch but I didn't want to go sit in the car without getting a picture of the Falls, so I overcame! Plus, I knew that doing something (like hiking...instead of shaking from the cold) would help warm me up. Lexi came with me (and eventually Seth) and we started up the pathway.

See how red Seth's cheeks are? That's from the cold. :)

Caleb was climbing on some rocks somewhere on the mountain, so we eventually caught up with him. (He was wearing his camo suit so it took some effort to find him. :) We only went .5 miles up the mountain because I didn't want to go too much farther and have to descend in the dark (plus I had what I went for...warmth and a waterfall picture!). The sun had already set by that time, so we turned around and started making our way down. Daddy caught up with us and helped us down the trails in the gathering darkness. We made it to the van safely and were glad to get to the cozy van. :)

That was our "day in the mountains". Oh I forgot to mention that we also stopped to pick up our chicken feed in Stuarts Draft, so that, and the stop at the orchard and Mr. Coffey's house, pushed everything back. Next time we'll hopefully have time to hike the whole trail...preferably in some warmer weather. :)

---

While I'm here I might as well tell you that we have a new blog. :) We decided to start over (with updated pictures on the "About Us" page...check them out!) so we have lots of storage space...at least enough for the next few years. I'm going to resize all the images I upload now through BlogStomp so that should prolong our storage space too.

So, I'm sure you're wanting to know what our new blog address is. :) It is www.wassenbergfamily.blogspot.com. Yes, I said farewell to our blog name "Solid Rock Ranch Updates". First of all, we don't own a real ranch (would love to, but we don't) and secondly that title was way too long and confusing to remember. We'd tell people our blog address and they'd have to get a pen and paper to write it down! (I even considered getting business cards for the purpose of just handing out our blog address!) "Wassenberg Family" is much simpler, easier to remember, and a bit shorter....all around better for now!

Well, enough yapping...there's one post up on our new blog already. So head over there, check it out, and let me know what you think!!

Kimber :)

P.S. - This blog will be staying "live" for now...no worries....but all new updates will be on The Wassenberg Family. :)

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Okay, just a very short post to say that I am trying to get some posts up. We have no free storage space left so we have to decide if we want to get a new blog or upgrade to paid storage. Of course, this had to happen when I had a bunch of posts to do this week. If I don't get to posts this week I can pretty much assure you there won't be any until Christmas. I've got 2 photo sessions and 1 wedding coming up in the next week and a half so I will be beyond busy editing and taking care of my customers. All this being said, please be patient with me. I've got to figure out how to balance my time correctly and so far our blog has been taking the back burner. :)

Thank you for your patience already. I know many of you want to see pictures of our completed addition. Of course, I could always be a little mean and make you have to come visit before you can see it...BUT I might take mercy on you and let you view it via the internet. The other posts I have to do come first, so I would say it'll be around January before some kitchen pictures grace the blog. :)

Okay, off I go to do some emailing! May you all be blessed...thank you very much for taking such an interest in our life that you're disappointed I'm not posting. :)

Friday, November 23, 2012

Last week Hannah, Lexi, Caleb, Seth, and I attended our first ever Romney-Ryan rally. Hannah knew some friends that were going and the rally was just 30 minutes away, so we decided to go. (Hannah and I have been wanting to get more involved politically now that we've graduated and the rally was a little way for us to get introduced.) Actually the rally was held at the Meadow Event Park in Doswell, which is where the VA State Fair takes place every year!

The rally was really, really neat. At least it was encouraging to see someone other than us who was voting for Romney. :)

The rally had lots of high-up political people there. Our governor, attorney general, and lots of other people (I don't remember their positions! :).

The guy in the middle photo is Bill Bolling (Republican running for governor 2013) and the one in the far right picture is George Allen (Republican running for the Senate). No idea who the other guy is. :)

That's our governor in the left picture. :) The guy in the right picture is Eric Cantor, our 7th district congressman.

After many people spoke about the need for a change better than Obama's change, Romney entered the scene!

That was the best picture I could grab of Romney pulling up in his massive bus. :)

All in all, I was very glad we went to the rally! I loved seeing Romney in real life...it made him seem more real. Something about always hearing him in the news, and seeing him on T.V. makes you think he's some super-amazing human. Seeing him in person reminded me that he's human just like me, and not anything more than that.

So, now I'm depressed Obama won re-election. Good thing we know Who's in control!
Kimber :)

Josiah turned 7 last week! To be more precise, he turned 7 on Election Day. We had his birthday dinner the Saturday before.

Partners in crime. :)

I think Hannah was feeling spunky. :) [There's a little view of our *mostly* completed kitchen, for those of you asking. I may get a better one up soon. We'll see. :)]

The dinner table.

Josiah chose chicken 'n wine sauce, rice, green beans, and rolls for his birthday meal. It was delicious as always!

The big birthday boy!

Does anyone else see a slight resemblance between Judah and Daddy?

I don't know how I missed this, but I forgot to take a picture of the food. Oops. :)

Presents came after dinner.

Josiah was very expressive while opening his gifts!

A hug for Lydia, thanking her for the play gun she bought for him.

When I saw Josiah open this blanket from Mama and Daddy, I immediately told him I was going to steal it. I love it!! Mama then told me that she had thought about giving it to me for my birthday, but she gave it to Josiah instead. Since then I've attempted to "borrow" it every now and then. :)

Let's just say he was very excited to get Kung Fu Panda 2. :)

Grandpa and Grandma gave Josiah a pogo stick which became the new favorite toy in the house!

Time for cake!!

Josiah definitely won the award for most variety for his ice cream cake.

On one side we had party cake ice cream, golden Oreos, cookie dough ice cream, and then a sprinkling of more golden Oreos.

The other side had mint chocolate chip ice cream, Oreos, plain vanilla ice cream, and then was topped with Andes mints.

The side I had was very good and everyone else said the other side was just as good as well.

We watched half of Kung Fu Panda 2 and then sang Happy Birthday to Josiah. After he blew out the candles, we dug into the delicious ice cream cake!

--

We had Josiah's birthday breakfast on his actual birthday.

We "woke" him up with our usual birthday serenade and then headed downstairs for breakfast.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

A few Friday's ago our family threw a little surprise party for my Na-naw (Mama's mom). Paw-paw and Na-naw were coming by to drop off some tables and chairs we needed, so we decided to try and throw a mini birthday party! :) We asked Paw-paw what Na-naw's favorite color was, what her favorite ice cream was, etc.

I picked up the grocery items since I was already out, and everyone else prepared dinner and set the table beautifully.

We had Na-naw close her eyes until she walked into the kitchen and, voila, when she opened her eyes we said "Happy birthday!!" She was very happy and excited. :)

The table with the lovely fine china and glasses.

Dinner still wasn't for another hour or so, so Paw-paw finished painting one of our kitchen soffets (Mom had been using a paint brush for the wall, and Paw-paw took over with the roller :).

Hannah and Lydia colored some pictures...

...and Judah was his little cute self. :)

Meanwhile, the boys were trying to get a fire started so we could cook our hamburgers. We tried to use coals from our Central Boiler, instead of KingsFord briquettes. It worked!

You know my obsession for roses, so I really don't think this picture needs an explanation. :)

After dinner was ready a little later than planned, we sat down to eat!

We had hamburgers, au gratin potatoes, and green beans. It was all delicious!

Home-made seltzer was the drink of the night.

Na-naw eating dinner. :)

As we sat around the table after dinner, we brought over Na-naw's favorite cake (Ukrop's pound...amazing!) and ice cream (Turkey Hill All Natural Chocolate!) and sang Happy Birthday!

If you've never tasted a Ukrop's pound cake, you are severely deprived. They are beyond amazing!!

After the candles were all blown out we just sat around and enjoyed each others company. Family is a great thing!